The late US VP Dick Cheney, who died at age 84, was considered one of the most significant occupants of that position in American history. While numerous vice-presidents had to settle for minor or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial power during the presidency of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "true president".
Bush resented this portrayal and claimed the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even descriptions of their association as a collaboration because it implied that they were equals. Despite these objections, Cheney considered the relaxed president accommodating on a wide array of governmental choices.
A Aftermath of 9/11
In charge of a group of conservative hawks that encompassed military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a school in Florida. As Bush traveled to a secret bunker in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating airplanes heading toward the government building.
Cheney claimed the assaults altered his perspective, making him become focused on retribution. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a takeover of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the armed intervention of Iraq, though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Disputed Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an reckoned 100,000 Iraqis perished, and not about the waterboarding of detainees captured after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was predicated on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do then. I believed it at the time and I believe it presently."
But even then, there were dissenting voices at a high level about the mishandling of Iraq. One of the administration's own representatives to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not reappointed from the position. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he wrote later "clear negligence, carelessness, and irresponsibility: potentially, deception, ineptitude, and corruption."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not completely accountable for the Iraq campaign. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a memo detailing situations in which American interests might be compromised (featuring "obtaining vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," particularly referencing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the White House somewhat determined on implementing what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; overthrow Saddam. Following he had been sacked by the president, the finance chief Paul O'Neill revealed how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of reducing America's involvement in the regional tensions and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a visit to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore objected to that one of the biggest accommodations in Baghdad had a ground design with a image of his predecessor's visage that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was among the most outspoken behind invading Iraq, frequently citing intelligence reports that were both thin or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "intensive questioning", the application of simulated drowning and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the interrogation methods, Cheney disregarded the report as "riddled with crap". He informed Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and establish programmes to apprehend the bastards who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and guarantee it never happened again. That is precisely what they did and they earn a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers imposed on him by opponents such as the dark character and The Prince of Darkness, and by the concept that he was a dark force directing Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Is it me who is the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees leave his hole? It's a nice way to work, in fact."
Business Interests
Debate over his corporate affiliations accompanied him during his tenure as second-in-command. While he had minimal expertise in corporate affairs but established relationships in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy corporations, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's VP candidate for the White House. Debatably, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at substantial sums.
It significantly boosted his finances. His yearly compensation during his period at the firm grew from his previous salary when he was military head to over four million. When he departed in 2000 he had a compensation package worth more than $20m|twenty
